A review by eesh25
The Lost Metal by Brandon Sanderson

5.0

4.5 Stars (rounding up to 5 because I'm biased)

Wow... End of Era 2, the era that wasn’t even supposed to be an era. I’m not sure where to start.

Actually, let’s start with how there was a six-year time jump between this book and the last. Was I the only one who was taken completely off guard by that? Wax and Steris have two children now! Max and Tindwyl. The latter made me a bit emotional because Tindwyl was my favourite character in The Well of Ascension.

The time jump made sense, though. Developments with the Set needed some time and that’s what the focus of this book is, to close the chapter of the Set and their plans. There were other things introduced in the series that didn’t have as much of a role in the conclusion as I’d have expected. I could’ve sworn more would come of the Kelsier reveal but apparently, it wasn’t as big a deal to those in the book. He and stuff to do with the Malwish... you get the feeling that they’re more for Era 3. And I’m okay with that.

The story of the Set was properly concluded, which I was very happy with. This was the main conflict that was introduced in the first book and I’m glad we got to know everything about what The Set was, what their goals were and why they were such assholes.

I was also happy with how Wax’s sister was handled. I wasn’t the only one underwhelmed in Bands of Mourning by the reveal (if you can call it that) about her being evil. Her arc in this book, as well as her motivations, were done well. All the character arcs in this book were great actually. They all figured out who they were and what they wanted. I loved that Steris got her own little side-arc. In the beginning of the series, I’d never have thought she would be an important character, much less my favourite of Era 2.

Overall, this was a great book that wrapped up all the major stories and conflicts, gave us some pretty epic moments, and also left us with something to look forward to.